There are two types of difficulty settings.
Galaxy Difficulty[]
The overall difficulty of the map, which includes pirates and the default AI intelligence of all of the races.
AI Intelligence Level[]
You can override the default difficulty (based on Galaxy Difficulty) of each race's AI by making adjustments in your game options for a more customized experience.
The AI intelligence difficulty provides different bonuses/penalties to the AI, defined in the GalCiv3AIDefs.xml file. The table below gives the unmodded values of these bonuses and penalties.
| Beginner | Easy | Normal | Gifted | Genius | Incredible | Godlike | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fleet Power | -25% | -10% | - | +10% | +20% | +100% | +200% |
 Raw Production |
-75% | -25% | - | +25% | +25% | +50% | +300% |
 Population Cap |
- | - | - | +1 | +2 | +4 | +3 |
 Research |
- | - | - | +10% | +25% | +33% | +200% |
 Net Weekly Income |
- | - | - | +25% | +33% | +100% | +300% |
 Growth |
- | - | - | +10% | +25% | +25% | +130% |
 Morale |
- | - | - | +2 | +3 | +5 | +3 |
 Construction Cost (improvements) |
- | - | - | - | - | -38% | -50% |
| Construction Cost (ships) |
- | - | - | - | - | -38% | -50% |
 Maintenance |
- | - | - | - | -50% | -50% | -50% |
 Ship Maintenance |
- | - | - | -50% | -50% | -50% | -50% |
| Ship Maintenance (stationed) |
- | - | - | - | -50% | -75% | -100% |
 Starbase Maintenance |
- | - | - | - | - | -50% | - |
 Ship Range |
- | - | - | +25% | +50% | +100% | unlimited |
 Capacity |
- | - | - | - | +25% | +33% | +100% |
 Accuracy |
- | - | - | - | - | - | +0.15 |
 Logistics |
- | - | - | - | +3 | +10 | - |
 Ship Hit Points |
- | - | - | +25% | +33% | +30% | +200% |
| Starbase Hit Points |
- | - | - | - | +25% | +50% | +200% |
| Shipyard Hit Points |
- | - | - | - | +100% | +125% | +150% |
| Moves |
- | - | - | +1 | +1, +33% | +1, +200% | +1, +200% |
 Elerium |
- | - | - | +25% | +50% | +200% | +200% |
 Thulium |
- | - | - | +25% | +50% | +200% | +200% |
 Antimatter |
- | - | - | +25% | +50% | +200% | +200% |
 Durantium |
- | - | - | +25% | +100% | +1, +200% | +1, +200% |
| Durantium (starting) |
- | - | - | +1 | +5 | +25 | +100 |
| AI Side Trade Modifier | - | - | - | - | +30% | +40% | - |
| Human Side Trade Modifier | - | - | - | - | -10% | -15% | -20% |
In addition, Incredible and Godlike intelligence difficulties can receive the following gifts at certain intervals
| Incredible | Godlike | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Starting Credits | 10000 | 1000 |
1000-2000  Credits |
50% (every 5 turns) | 50% (every 10 turns) |
| Free War Tech Chance | 20% | 40% |
| Free Ideology Points Chance | 25% | 40% |
| Free Ideology Points Award | 15 | 20 |